NeilBlanchard wrote:We just got our Bolt EV about 2 weeks ago. In general, it is wonderful. Two EV-centric niggles: no light in the charging port, and no coasting in D.

We are a tall family, and we fit in the Bolt EV better than any other car (let alone any other EV!), so there's that. It is the longest range EV that we can afford - it is expensive, but with the incentives we get, we can do it.

It is practical - we require a hatchback. It is nimble. One general niggle: on some bumps cause a noticeable jounce, that may be a from a slight under-dampening in the rear suspension?

Having an EV with this much range - is a revelation! Even with the "hilltop reserve" setting, we see a range of ~290 miles. Which is amazing.

I agree that 290 miles is clearly better than 70, and if I did a high mileage, I would choose something like that - however GM have not released it in the UK, and the closest thing I could get is a Hyundai Ionic, which has also had extremely good reports, so it sounds like whatever future people want, its parity with what they were used to with their old ICE cars - and I totally understand that comfort zone.

With this sort of range, and more manufacturers getting in to the EV segment, it's actually quite easy to see that Tesla may end up a victim of their own success - especially when the likes of people such as GM, Toyota and Hyundai can make the car part of the EV better and/ or cheaper.

I read somewhere (annoyingly cant find the link) that Toyota are planning a 200-300 mile EV with half the battery size of the Model S, meaning that things are about to heat up quite soon, and the competition is going to get a lot more fierce - be interesting to see what that does to Tesla sales. Not that I dislike Tesla as all - I just think they are very expensive for what you get, and relatively speaking, there's a Toyota dealership on every street corner.

phb10186 wrote:I read somewhere (annoyingly cant find the link) that Toyota are planning a 200-300 mile EV with half the battery size of the Model S

I'll believe that when I see it. I think at this stage it may be more "musing about" than "planning".

Let me put it this way: Toyota do not deserve for you, or anyone, to wait for any new EV they might someday produce. They're late to the game -- they pushed hydrogen fuel cell over BEV for years, and have even trashed BEV technology in ads. Such BEVs as they themselves produced (two generations of RAV4 EVs) were a handful of token compliance cars. Currently they build one PHEV (Prius Prime), with just about the worst pure-EV range of any PHEV made.

phb10186 wrote:I read somewhere (annoyingly cant find the link) that Toyota are planning a 200-300 mile EV with half the battery size of the Model S

I'll believe that when I see it. I think at this stage it may be more "musing about" than "planning".

Let me put it this way: Toyota do not deserve for you, or anyone, to wait for any new EV they might someday produce. They're late to the game -- they pushed hydrogen fuel cell over BEV for years, and have even trashed BEV technology in ads. Such BEVs as they themselves produced (two generations of RAV4 EVs) were a handful of token compliance cars. Currently they build one PHEV (Prius Prime), with just about the worst pure-EV range of any PHEV made.

I agree with you 100%. The only things i'll say are things we all know, and are that:

1. Toyota invested loads into HFC, and wanted to wait, but the market moved to EV as the tech was more accessible.

2. The sheer amount of batteries needed creates a very long lag phase for full EV roll-out, and we are really still at the beginning of that curve still I think.

3. Toyota, for the the most part, have been innovators in the production process, rather than technological innovators mostly - so the main point I was trying to convey is that if they were to make the move to high volume EV vehicles, it could be appreciated that that would change the EV market a fair bit. Toyota tend to produce vehicles for the masses, and not vehicles where the technology leads to a a super-normal price point, as they are a high volume producer in every way.

4. It would be wrong to believe that a company like Toyota will not have been working very hard behind the scenes to perfect BEV technology.

Anyone in MASS looking to buy a Bolt EV needs to go to https://www.massenergy.org/drivegreenI got $5,500 off MSRP, no qual or anything, just had to ask for it at Quirk Chevy in Braintree. They have the BEST people and I was in and out in 2.5 hrs WITH a trade in. Small hang up with cleaning the Bolt that still had all the covers on it.

I couldn't wait for the Tesla 3 to come out. too many back ordered so this has 238 mile per charge.Drives nice.No I will donate my i-MiEV to WBUR talk radio. I doubt anyone around wants it and I already transferred the plates to the Bolt.

How did the Bolt do with the Frost the other day ?I am very disappointed that normal cabin warming didn't un-frost the blades as on any normal car. Including the 'i'. But I think I needed to change the settings on how the pre-conditioning comes on. Will have to see how it works on the next frost/ (shhh, snow).

Still enjoying the car except for the front seat so I added more foam which has helped. Feels about as stiff as the 'i'.Drives Great ! More of an insulated car then the 'i' that felt like a tin can.

No more Range anxiety, recharge once a week at a CCS in Lowell (about 15-20 min from home). This is the only FREE CCS around and I am not sure how many Chevy dealers have the CCS or if you can use them if you didn't buy it there. One Chevy dealer in Nashua NH let me use theirs when I asked them to turn it on. They didn't know anything about it

Plenty of room inside including the trunk, sub-trunk and sub-sub-trunk . I also cut out some of that black foam in the sub-sub-trunk area and shoved extra storage things like 1st aid, small jumper cables, thin blanket and small tire pump that came with the 'i'.

Drive in L all the time and don't like the paddle, just personal choice. Barely ever touch the brake pedal.

I also got $10,000 from my trade in of the Truck so $16,309. I won on that trade, it needed tires (about 1,600+) and the Fuel pump was starting to go with a fix price of around $2000. So the 10k they gave me was fine......... no I didn't tell them about the pump issue. Book is about 15k and selling myself might have had it sitting around for a long time. Not bad for a 12 y/o truck

I did donate the i-MiEV and can't wait to see what they got for the donation.

I can't really tell you how well I do on miles/driving. I think I get about 4+/- per kW according to the car and mileage varies when I actually look. But 240+ on the middle number. I have noticed 5+ on occasion but I am not trying.

I drive it like I did the 'i' .......... I stole it. And after looking at how much I paid for it, I DID !!! hahahahah

Now that we're getting into pre-heat season up here in the northeast corner, I've had to adjust my habits a bit from the I-MiEV (though I might be driving Bear this winter, depends on how the Bolt handles snow).

For starters, pre-condition works whether the car is plugged in or not, which means I can defrost at work (for that matter, cabin heat works while charging, too). However, one glaring difference is that instead of 3 pre-programmed modes, the function simply turns on the HVAC with whatever settings you left it at except for fan speed and the state of the Heat and A/C button (I believe it defaults to auto fan speed and auto-enables the heat or A/C). So, if you left the vents set to the dash, that's where the air will come out when pre-conditioning. I have to remind myself to turn the floor vents back on when I park for the night as I leave it set to the windshield only when driving to keep it clear.

Plus, since the Bolt has a 10 kW heater instead of 5, it doesn't take half an hour to get the car warm. There's enough coolant in the heater system that warm air continues with fan only operation for about 10 minutes, so I'm more comfortable while following the same routine of pre-heating and driving with fan only.

The heated steering wheel is a game-changer. So glad mine came with that.

Tigger, was your cabin settings set with air to the windshield? If so, and it still didn't defrost the wiper blades, you can either turn the wipers on and power the car down while they are moving (leave the stalk in one of the on positions; turning it off will park the wipers even after the car is off), or power the car down and manually move them up a bit so they are over the defroster vents. They will self-park when the car is started.